“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” I heard at the same time that I heard Ashton greeting, “Hey, baby. I’m?—”
“Someone has broken into my home, and she’s assaulted my dog and me!” I screamed into the house phone.
I could hear Ashton calling my name from the other phone, but I had no time to talk to him. I knew that he could hear me speaking with the operator, and I knew that he would get his information that way.
I answered all the questions as the operator promised someone would be on the way, and she would remain on the line until the police arrived.
“Ash,” I cried out as I set the home phone on the bed. I walked around the room, looking for a weapon.
“Baby, I’m pulling up the driveway to the house now. What’s going on?” he asked as Titan erupted into loud piercing barks that quickly turned into whines as he tried to get out of the door. I finally unplugged a table lamp because that was the only weapon I could find.
“Please be careful, I don’t know if?—”
I heard gunshots going off. “Ashton? Ashton! Ashton, please answer me!” I screamed.
I rushed to the window and stared out. I could see Ashton lying on the ground, and she was running away. I grabbed the house phone, giving details to the operator as I ran down the steps with Titan racing ahead of me.
“Stay there. Do not go out of the house, ma’am.”
“I can’t stay,” I screamed and threw the phone down.
Titan was already at Ashton’s side, barking and walking in circles around his owner, when I made it through the front door.
Running to his side, I screamed, “Ashton! Ashton, baby, please, talk to me. I love you so much. I thought it was too soon, but I know now that’s what I feel. Please don’t leave me.” I dropped to my knees on the wet driveway. He had just shoveled the snow yesterday evening. It felt like a long time before the police and ambulance arrived, but I knew it couldn’t have been more than two minutes.
The police took my statement as the emergency responders administered medical help to Ashton.
“Please let me go with him,” I begged as they loaded Ashton into the ambulance.
“Ma’am, we’re not supposed to do that,” the male responder stated.
“I know, but please. He needs to see a friendly face when he wakes up. He will wake up, won’t he?” I asked, looking from him to the female responder.
She exchanged a nonverbal glance with her partner before one of the officers declared, “I’ll take you to the hospital. We’ll follow behind them. Come on.”
I nodded and rushed to the police car with the officer. He held the back door open, and I climbed inside. “I’m sorry, ma’am. It’s protocol.”
“I know.”
I patted my leg and whistled for Titan.
“Sorry, ma’am. He can’t go to the hospital. We’ll place him in the K-9 unit and take him to the station. You can pick him up when you’re ready. I’ll provide details for that.”
I thanked him and waited for him to take Titan to the K-9 SUV. When he returned, he pulled away and moved in front of the ambulance, to provide them an escort, while another police car pulled behind the ambulance.
The three vehicles left two other police cars and the K-9 unit behind as they continued their investigation. I had learned during the questioning that she had taken the gun from Ashton’s den. I knew she hadn’t had one on her when she arrived, or she would have brought it out.
As we sped away from the house, I noticed two more police cars halfway down the road. Three police were standing close to one of the cruisers, and a fourth one was standing over a body. The pristine snow around her was stained red, and my gaze drifted up to see that her eyes stared sightlessly at the sky above.
I prayed that Ashton’s fate would not be the same as his PA, Shaniece’s.
JANUARY – THREE WEEKS LATER
“Wave, baby.”I instructed Chanel as I pointed to our images on the Jumbotron.
She waved and smiled as I squeezed her tighter against me. No matter how hard I had tried to keep things under wrap about the truth of my marriage and my inner squad, it all came out in an ugly mess that we were still weaving our way through.
I spent two days in the hospital before I was released with a nurse to check in on me. As the police completed their investigation, they learned that Shaniece was behind all the assaults on us. Having access to my schedule, online and social media accounts, my itinerary, and even having bugged myhouse, she knew pretty much everything that was going on in my life at any given time.
